Confirming my thoughts on water to see if I understand it

[bsantucci]

Hi everyone,

Longtime lurker here. I've been wrapped up in the planted tank and shrimp world until I moved recently. I broke down my 48 gallon planted tank and decided I want to do a biotope-like tank for a yet determined apisto species.

I'm in the process or ordering and waiting for stuff, but have sand on its way. I have manzanita branches and malaysian wood to drop in along the sand. I plan to drop lots of leaf litter and seed pods along the sand and driftwood.

With that being said, I'm trying to fully understand the water. I only plan to have one sword and some val's in the tank along with some floaters possibly to reduce nitrate. I have RODI which I plan to use Now do I have to remineralize the water or can I use the straight RODI in this tank? I plan to have a root tab or two around the plants to keep them fertilized so the water column doesn't need minerals for them.

From my reading here today, it sounds like I can do full RODI in the tank w/o adding anything else and the fish will be happy? The abundance of leaf litter I plan to add I think will drive the pH down below 7 I would think over time. Does this sound correct?

If the above is correct, how and when do you determine time for a water change versus just topping off the tank with the RODI?

 

[Mike Wise]

I use a mix of peat-treated R/O and straight R/O in my blackwater breeding tanks. It's never 0 hardness, but close. Pure R/O should be acidic because CO2 naturally dissolved in the water will cause this. I personally never 'top off' a tank, but do regular partial water changes. Fish, plants and food all add pollutants to the water that don't evaporate. Topping off just concentrates them.

 

[bsantucci]

I use a mix of peat-treated R/O and straight R/O in my blackwater breeding tanks. It's never 0 hardness, but close. Pure R/O should be acidic because CO2 naturally dissolved in the water will cause this. I personally never 'top off' a tank, but do regular partial water changes. Fish, plants and food all add pollutants to the water that don't evaporate. Topping off just concentrates them.

Thanks Mike! Appreciate the response and info. OK so just partial WC's weekly? 25% or do you recommend like 50%?

I don't see myself doing peat treatments to the water, but may add peat to the filter down the line. So no real reason to add TDS back to the water unless I want to have some plants to grow, then maybe add like 20TDS or so of GH?

 

[Mike Wise]

I don't play 'chemistry set' in tanks with fish, so I don't add peat filtration to their tanks - only their replacement water. The amount and frequency of water changes really depends on how many fish and size of the tank.